Dick Green at the Hall

I’ll admit it; there are perks that come with working at the Hall of Fame. One of those benefits involves the occasional visit from a retired major leaguer. We had one just last week, when former Kansas City and Oakland A’s second baseman Dick Green came to Cooperstown.

Accompanied by his wife, Lia, Green got a behind-the-scenes tour of the Hall of Fame, its collections, and its library holdings. During the tour, I had a chance to meet the Greens, a particular thrill for me given my experience of writing a book about those great A’s teams of the early 1970s.

I was a bit unsure what to expect. I had always heard that Green was a very quiet man who lived a reclusive life at his home in South Dakota. The scouting report was more than slightly off the mark. We all found Green to be extremely amiable, more than happy to talk about his days with the Athletics. At one point, he even started to ask me questions about my experiences writing about the A’s. I told him that a meeting with Joe Rudi ranked as one of the highlights; Greed said he remains close friends with Rudi, who has long been considered one of the gentlemen in the game.

Although Green claimed that his memory was faulty, he regaled us with his memories of just about every major character associated with those A’s, who strung together three consecutive world championships from 1972 to 1974. Green, one of the few players who had a good relationship with Charlie Finley, said that the owner generally treated him well. And he had high praise for pitcher Catfish Hunter, who possessed almost a sixth sense in his ability to change speeds and attack opposing hitters.

Not surprisingly, Green hailed Reggie Jackson as the player most likely to carry the A’s in those days. Jackson had unusual raw power. “He hit a ball once in Boston that the second baseman jumped for—and it went out of the park,” Green told the Hall of Fame’s Craig Muder.

When Muder asked Green which opposing player hit the ball the hardest, he offered two names. The first was Dick Allen, who had tremendous power to right-center field and had a tendency to hit scorching line drives toward Green’s position at second base. Green also named Mickey Mantle, whose left-handed power could intimidate infielders on the right side of the field. “He hit the ball so hard, I can remember being in Kansas City and playing him in right field. Then he’d try a little drag bunt to get on.” Green said he usually handled those bunts and threw Mantle out.

Green’s claim should come as no surprise to anyone who remembers the game from that era. He was one of the game’s best defensive second basemen, a player who often drew comparisons to the Yankees’ Bobby Richardson. With above-average range, sure hands, a quick turn on the double play, and a strong throwing arm, Green provided the defensive glue to those A’s teams of the 1960s and early 70s.

Green’s big league career began in 1963, when he appeared in 13 late-season games and held his own at shortstop and second base. By 1964, he became Kansas City’s regular second baseman, hitting a respectable .264 with 11 home runs while playing steadily in the field. The next year, he hit a career-high 15 home runs, a substantial total for a middle infielder of that era.

Green’s hitting fell off as pitchers became increasingly dominant in the late 1960s. But once the “Year of the Pitcher” came and went, Green bounced back. He put up his best offensive season in 1969, hitting .275 with 53 walks and 12 home runs. Though he didn’t make the All-Star team, he did receive some back-of-the-ballot support in the MVP voting.

A bad back contributed to a career-worst .190 batting average in 1970, leading to rumors that Green might retire and concentrate on running his family’s prosperous moving company in Rapid City, S.D. But Finley talked him out of it and Green rebounded with 12 home runs and 51 walks in 1971. That A’s team won 101 games to claim the American League West.

A series of injuries limited Green to only 26 games in 1972. As a team, the A’s suffered little, holding off the pesky White Sox to win the West. Luckily, Green returned to action in time to play in the postseason, earning his first berth in a World Series. Green became a featured player on a memorable Series highlight, as he absorbed Hal McRae’s full steam body block that planted him six feet beyond the bag. Green held onto the ball, and the A’s held on to beat the Big Red Machine.

Returning to health in 1973, Green didn’t hit much, but helped stabilize the middle infield as the A’s won their second consecutive championship. In 1974, Green played in only 100 regular season games, but saved his best defensive play for the World Series against the Dodgers. Time after time, Green turned in sparkling plays that stopped potential Dodger rallies. “Green has made the difference; he has made the big plays in the key situations,” Steve Garvey told sportswriter Red Foley. “He’s continually making big double plays, the kind that take us right out of possible big innings.” For the Series, Green took part in six double plays.

Despite going hitless in 13 at-bats, Green earned the Babe Ruth Award as Series MVP in direct tribute to his fielding brilliance. It was belated justice for a fine fielder who was always running second to someone else in the Gold Glove race, whether it was Bobby Richardson, Bobby Knoop, Dave Johnson or Bobby Grich.

Coming off such a performance on the World Series stage, at 33 Green seemed capable of playing at least another season. But he finally did what he had threatened to do for years; he announced his retirement. “I would have lost my starting job [in 1975] to Phil Garner, and I just didn’t want to be a utility infielder,” Green said at the Hall. “Besides, I made more money at home with our moving company.”

With his playing days behind him, Green did well with the moving company before eventually selling the business to his partner. Now enjoying retirement in South Dakota, Green weights only a few pounds above his playing weight and still looks like he could turn two if asked to do so.

Just as significantly, Dick Green is not the recluse that I was led to believe. He’s outgoing, and funny, and full of good memories. Yes, sometimes your heroes turn out better than you thought.

Sources: The Sporting News; the New York Daily News; Dick Green’s clippings file at the National Baseball Hall of Fame

About Bruce Markusen

Bruce Markusen is the manager of Digital and Outreach Learning at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He has authored seven baseball books, including biographies of Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda and Ted Williams, and A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s, which was awarded SABR's Seymour Medal.

Comments

Possibly it’s a sore subject, but I’d be interested in hearing Mr. Green’s take on Finley’s experiment of hitting for his second baseman every time up. Folks like Green, Ted Kubiak, and even, memorably, Gene Tenace would play second for two or three innings and then an allegedly stronger hitter would be brought in and then the next second sacker was sent out to play the field. I’ll wager that wasn’t real popular among the A’s infielders.

Hard to imagine a player (other than a pitcher) today winning a World Series MVP MVP award after going hitless for the series! I don’t believe I heard previously heard about the Babe Ruth Award: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe_Ruth_Award

Mike, Green touched about the revolving second basemen briefly during his visit. I don’t think that he or any of the other second basemen really liked Finley’s plan, but Green wasn’t the type to complain publicly. Dick also got along with Finley (unlike most of the players), so I think he was willing to put up with the arrangement a little more readily than others did.

Thankfully, the revolving second basemen plan didn’t last beyond 1972, allowing the infielders to return to normalcy.

Did you ever discuss the Mike Andrews incident with Green? It was the ’73 WS. Finley pressured Andrews into signing a false affidavit that he was injured so that the A’s could put Manny Trillo on their roster. The A’s players revolted. Manager Dick Williams resigned after the WS. There is much more to the story but I was wondering if you asked him about it.

I didn’t ask him about it personally, but another staff member did. Like most of the A’s players, Green was not happy with the treatment of Andrews. Green was actually in the trainer’s room when Finley and Andrews “chatted” over Andrews’ alleged injury and their discussion became pretty heated. Clearly, Green supported Andrews, as did all of the A’s players.

I noticed the Andrews topic.
I have devoted an entire Chapter on the Oct. 1973 Andrews topic in my new book.
It is always good to have our player’s actual version of events.
I thought I could add info that has never been revealed, since it involves court records.
My book still has to go through the editing process. I do not have a release date yet.

I had a two part article in the March 2011 edition of ‘Sports Collector’s Digest’, to discuss my book.

Green was the greatest fielding second baseman I ever saw. I honestly believe that he was better than Bill Mazeroski, among others. And, he was so nice to fans, contrasted to Joe Morgan, who always told the fans how great he was and you ( the fans ) wasn’t.

Thank you for a great article that strikes close to home. As a kid growing up in Rapid City, our local radio station carried the A’s games (presumably because Dick was the local baseball hero). I still fondly recall spending warm summer nights in the back yard listening to the games. Later, after he retired, my father became acquainted with Dick through the local Lions Club and and always spoke quite highly of him. While the big name talents are always the players in the headlines, I think its the solid unsung players like Dick that provide the magic aura that makes baseball the great American sport that it is.

Greenie was highly respected among the A’s players, and was extremely talented and trusted in the field. He had a peculiar habit on popups of taking his eye off the ball to check the baserunners !

The rotating 2nd baseman scheme was in response to Green’s back injury in 1972. He was hitting well for about 10 games, then missed the rest of the regular season. He came back for the post-season and went 6 for 18 in the World Series.

Green was known to have some impressive power — he was one of 2 or 3 players to have reached the upper deck at the Coliseum. This was before Canseco, McGwire, and Androstenedion. I had always heard that he was an affable person. Now, I understand why he was always considering retirement. I think he made the right choices in that regard.